In the medical field, much effort has been devoted to preventing undesired pregnancy of a female. While various methods and compounds have been developed for administration and/or use by females in preventing unwanted pregnancies, no contraceptive compound has heretofore been developed suitable for administration to males to safely and satisfactorily inhibit development of sperm cells.
A few years ago, a novel sulfur-containing compound and method for the preparation of the same was described and claimed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,243,425. The sulfur compounds of that invention are based upon the replacement of an oxygen atom in a sugar molecule by a sulfur atom, and, more specifically, are based upon the replacement of the ring oxygen of the sugar by the sulfur atom and oxidized forms of the sulfur atom and thus may be described as thio-sugars.
While the compounds described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,243,425 were then recognized to be of both chemical and biochemical interest as sugar analogs, the then recognized use of the compounds was primarily in the preparation of resins by reaction with a diisocyanate or other polyisocyanates, with usefulness as radiation absorbers and as chain terminators in free radical polymerizations being mentioned. 5-Thio-D-glucose has also been found useful as a tumor cell growth restructing compound and as a weight control compound. Patent applications directed to such compound uses have been made the subject matter of U.S. patent applications filed on Feb. 14, 1974 and given Ser. Nos. 442,448 and 442,447, respectively. It has remained until now, however, to find and develop usefulness for 5-thio-D-glucose as a male contraceptive.